The latest round for Koubei, which deals in local services such as food delivery, will surpass a $1 billion target with backing from China Investment Corp, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. The round also includes Yunfeng Capital, a fund backed by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, and values the two-year-old startup at about $8 billion, they said.

Silver Lake, the largest technology-focused private equity firm, was an early investor in Alibaba but typically eschews early-stage backing for Chinese startups. On-demand local services have attracted major spending in past years and have become a costly battleground for Chinese internet companies from Alibaba to Tencent Holdings Ltd, as more people turn to the web to order take-out, schedule beauty treatments and hire domestic helpers.

Beijing-based Primavera Capital Group and CDH Investments are also investing in Koubei's round, the people said.

Fred Hu, chairman of Primavera, confirmed the company is an investor in Koubei without elaborating. Silver Lake declined to comment while CIC, CDH and Yunfeng didn't respond to requests for comment.

Baidu Inc is the other big player in a loosely defined "online-to-offline" market that's expected to reach 7.28 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) by 2017. Chinese users of location-based services could rise 29 percent to 400 million people next year, according to Shanghai-based internet consultant iResearch.

The intense competition for online consumption requires billions of dollars in marketing, subsidies and other incentives to encourage spending. It's also heightening tensions between the country's largest internet players.

Bloomberg

Instead of applying liquid or powder to conceal spots or wrinkles, the new technology is based on the idea of wearing a tailor-made sheet produced by a special printer.

Panasonic Corp. is developing what it calls the “makeup sheet,” an ultra-fine film that the company says can mask a person’s skin problems by covering the face with it.

According to the company’s announcement on Dec. 1, a smart “mirror” developed for the makeup sheet system assesses five categories of the skin’s condition such as blotches, wrinkles and transparency with a built-in camera under a light-emitting diode (LED) light.

Within about two minutes of the analysis, the inkjet printer developed for the system prints a sheet up to 10 centimeters square that best matches skin color and the size of wrinkles.

Spraying water on one side of the sheet allows it to be stuck on to the skin, and other cosmetics can be applied on top of it, according to Panasonic. It can be easily removed with water.

Under the project, Panasonic draws on technology used in chips, organic electro-luminescence and other fields.

The company is looking for a cosmetics maker to translate the technology into a marketable product.

“We want to see the makeup sheet become part of our daily life by around 2020,” said Panasonic’s Sachiko Kawaguchi, who is in charge of the project.

Conventional ideas of skin-care products and cosmetics are undergoing transformation in other areas such as “cosmetics garments” that have already hit shop shelves.

Teijin Ltd., a leading fiber maker, announced in November last year that it has developed what it described as the country’s first cosmetics garments designed to keep the skin moist.

The product, named Raffinan, is made of fiber soaked in malic acid.

The company said it keeps the skin in the healthy condition of being mildly acidic by retaining moisture.

Teijin said the Raffinan material retains its ability even if it is washed 50 times or so.

Descente Ltd., a sportswear maker, has rolled out T-shirts and tank tops made of the material since March under the brand name Uroute.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd.’s board approved the purchase of an 80 percent stake in Gujarat State Petroleum Corp.’s deepwater block in the Krishna Godavari basin, it said in a statement on Friday. The New Delhi-based company will pay $995.26 million for the Deen Dayal West Field, the largest discovery in the KG-OSN-2001/3 block, with estimated natural gas reserves of 1.1 trillion cubic feet.

It will pay​ another $200 million for six other discoveries in the block located in the Bay of Bengal. The block has likely total reserves of at least 11.2 trillion cubic feet, according to GSPC’s annual report for the year ended March 31.

“The acquisition fits well with the strategy of ONGC to enhance natural gas production from domestic fields on a faster pace,” the company said, adding that trial gas production from Deen Dayal West Field has already started.

The deal will help expedite production of gas from the block critical to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of reducing import dependency of hydrocarbons by 10 percent by 2022.

The companies will share infrastructure and reduce costs in an area where both have spent or plan to spend at least $3 billion each. The deal is critical for GSPC, a company owned by the government of the western state of Gujarat, as it is at least four years behind schedule in starting commercial gas production despite having completed construction of a processing platform, gas pipeline and an onshore terminal.
ONGC said the acquisition will help it develop faster its discoveries in the Yanam and Godavari areas as well as gas discoveries in its KG-DWN-98/2 block.